Dark Melodies
by Solitaire Emerald
Summary: After the Snow Queen's spell has lifted, how will the Emma's new mission affect Erik's Happy Ending?
1. Chapter 1

**Holy… I can't believe it's been nearly two years since I continued by story. I really am sorry about that. The reason for the sudden hiatus is not because I don't care about it, not at all; it was just between a lack of inspiration and the Neverland and Oz arcs not really being my favorite. But I'll admit, even though I'm not exactly the biggest **_**Frozen**_** fan, I really enjoyed that and the current story arc, although the **_**Frozen**_** part might be more because of how it drew more inspiration for the original **_**Snow Queen **_**fairy tale. What I didn't like, however, was Rumple suddenly becoming a bad guy again, throwing all character development out the window. Of course, I can't help but wonder just how much free will he actually has now…**

** Well, that was long. Anyway, because it's been so long, I've decided to start back up around the first half of season four. I hope that despite the long wait, there are still some loyal readers out there willing to read this and that I had become a better writer. Thank you.**

Erik was alone in his all but abandoned lair, his right wrist locked in a handcuff and the other one latched around a column.

Just a few days ago he finished with a meeting with his mother, Rene. They had had several of these since she written a letter to him, asking for his forgiveness and a second chance. Much to his surprise, those meetings have gone quite well. There was no screaming or arguing, although it was a bit quiet and awkward the first few times. But as time went on, they began talking more, and discussing their regrets and hopes for the future. Erik had even told her that he hoped he would marry Christine soon, perhaps even within the next few months.

And why, suddenly, was he trapped in his own lair? It was because a new curse had made its way to Storybrooke, the Spell of Shattered Sight, which would make even the most optimistic person see the worst in someone.

OoOoOo

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Christine asked as Emma locked the handcuff to his wrist.

"I don't want to hurt you," Erik replied. "Or anyone else for that matter. Maybe the spell will work on me, maybe not. But I'd rather not take a risk."

"That should be it," Emma said hooking the keyring to her belt loop. "Anything else you need?"

"No, and thank you. You'd better go now; it's a long way up."

"All right. Let's go, Christine." Christine gave Erik a final kiss before departing with Emma.

OoOoOo

Just then, Erik heard what sounded like the shattering of glass. He looked up and saw that there were shards of glass falling from the ceiling.

"How in the world…?" he said, but before he could finish, a tiny shard entered his eye. At first it felt as though a knife had stabbed him in the eye, but then it passed. Now all he felt was… cold. Cold, as though his veins were flowing with ice. "How strange…"

An hour had passed, and suddenly he felt weak. His limbs felt stiff as steel rods and felt so cold that he had bunched his legs to his chin.

"_Mon Dieu,_" he said shivering, "I've been told that my touch is as cold as the grave, but I've never felt it myself until now."

"I'm almost sorry to see you die in such pain," a voice said.

Erik turned his head and saw a familiar face.

"Vicomte? What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? I'm here to do what I should have done a long time ago. You caused more than enough pain to me and Christine and then you have to nerve to ask her to marry you? Well, soon enough we will both be free of you." Suddenly he pulled out a fire axe from behind his back and swung it downwards. Erik had just been able to roll backwards away from him.

"Vicomte! Let's just think rationally here!" Erik shouted just before ducking a swing. "Come now, do you really think that this is what Christine would want?"

"Since when have you cared about what she wanted? You kidnapped her for God's sake and pretended to be an angel sent by her father!" After another missed swing, Erik had an idea to free himself. Right when Raoul was about to give another swing, Erik ran as far as the chain would let him and in a single hit the chain was broken. Immediately after, Erik disappeared. "What?" In the next moment, Erik gave Raoul a good bash on the back of the head and he collapsed to the ground.

"Sorry, Vicomte. But thank you for freeing me. _Merci beaucoup_." As soon as he turned around an icy figure appeared before him, covered in white.

"Well done," Ingrid said, "You really are as clever as they say."

"You," Erik said, "give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

"You're not _that_ clever; do you really that you can overpower me?"

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm here to ask for an alliance."

"And why would I do that?"

"You, Emma, Elsa, and I share something in common: We are misunderstood, shunned from society for who we are. Not even the people we love most could ever understand us. But we can understand each other. What do you say?"

"If I did join you, what would become of Christine?"

"She doesn't love you," she replied bluntly, "not really. She says she does, but it's a lie, it's always a lie. They say they love you, that they'll be there for you even in the darkest times, but they'll always betray you in the end. And you should know that more than anyone, you've felt rejection twice. It would be a shame for your heart to be broken again. What will you choose?"

Erik felt his temper flare and in the coldness of his body. How dare she say that about her, speak of her that way when she knew nothing about her. But then he was suddenly calm.

"No," he replied calmly. "You're wrong. And I pity you. I pity you because you'll never understand true unconditional love, what it feels like to have someone beside you and be a glimmer of hope in the darkness. So I'm afraid I'll have to turn down your offer." He turned around and started to leave.

"Wait." He turned around and she began to approach him. He was ready to strike her, but he didn't need to. The Snow Queen merely left a light kiss on his hollow cheek. Suddenly, something changed; he still felt cold, but all the pain seemed to melt away with her kiss. "This is for in case you change your mind." Then she disappeared in a flurry of snow.

OoOoOo

"Erik!" Emma said. "How did you get out of there?"

"It's a long story, but let's just say the dear Vicomte helped me."

"Wait," Elsa said. "Come here a moment." Erik approached her and she placed her hand where the Snow Queen had left her kiss. "She was there, wasn't she?"

"How did you know?"

"That spell froze your heart and her kiss saved your life."

"What? But how?"

"It must because since the spell couldn't hurt your eyes, it hurt your heart instead. The heart can always be harmed, even for someone like you who's immune to magic. But if someone with ice powers kisses you, your heart will still be frozen, but you won't feel any pain."

"So that's why she said 'In case you change your mind…'".

"She wanted you to join us, didn't she? I suppose it's not hard to see why. Wish we had more time to talk, but we better get going. You should check on Christine, but just be careful."

"I will. And good luck."

OoOoOo

"Admit it, you didn't care about what happened during _Il Muto _or _Don Juan_, you loved being in the spotlight," Meg spat at Christine. They were both at the Storybrooke Theater, where Christine went before the curse hit to find Meg. Christine was going to tell her that they should hurry back to their homes and lock themselves in so they wouldn't hurt anyone, but before she could tell the whole story, the mirror shards entered their eyes, and they had been throwing insults at each other the whole time.

"Oh, why don't you just admit that you've been jealous of me since I got here," Christine hurled back. "You've always wanted to upstage me ever since I was center stage."

"As if I couldn't be just as good as a leading lady as you."

"And what would you do, exactly? Do a song and dance striptease?"

"Oh dear, let's not start that again," Erik said entering the theater.

"And you," Christine said with a piercing stare, "you're the one that caused all this trouble. Why couldn't you just leave me alone?"

"I was wondering the exact same thing," Raoul said. Erik turned around and saw him with axe ready to strike.

"Oh, great," Erik remarked sarcastically. Raoul took a swing and Erik ducked, causing the axe to get stuck in a wooden column. Erik ran behind him and put Raoul in a choke hold, but Raoul headbutted him with the back of his head, causing Erik to stumble backwards. Raoul gave him a punch in the nose, making it bleed before retrieving his axe. Then he kicked him to the ground and readied the axe.

Right before Raoul struck the axe down, Erik grabbed ahold of his arms and tried to push them upwards. He had hoped that he could flip him over, but Raoul turned out to be quite strong, and Erik could have sworn he could feel the blade start to cut into his neck.

Then all of a sudden, Raoul stopped. Erik looked up at him and they both stared at each other for a moment. Then he looked over at Christine and Meg and they too just stared at each other in disbelief.

"Oh my God!" Raoul said as he offered his hand to Erik. "Are you all right?"

"For getting punched in the nose, I'm actually quite fine," Erik replied nonchalantly as he stood up. Suddenly Christine leapt into his arms, giggling.

"Can you believe what a said?" she asked with a laugh. "I sounded just like Carlotta, didn't I?"

"All you needed was that dramatic accent," Meg added.

When they all exited the theater, they saw that it had begun to snow, and everyone was their usual happy selves. Later, Erik had learned that the Snow Queen had sacrificed herself to break the spell and it turned out that instead of hate for what she had done, she deserved pity more than anything for what had happened to her many years ago. Perhaps now she could be with her sisters, wherever they may be, and find the peace that she had for so long been looking for.

And after these events had happened, Erik had recalled an unusual incident that had happened…

OoOoOo

Anna had decided that before going back to Arendelle, she would catch a performance of the latest opera. It turned out, however, that if she wanted to get a good seat, she should have probably reserved her tickets early. As she looked around for anywhere to sit, she looked up and noticed that there was a box high above the stage that was completely empty.

"How could such a good seat be empty?" she said to herself. As she made her way up the stairs, an usher ran in front of her and stopped her.

"Oh no, mademoiselle," he said, "you can't go in there."

"Why?"

"This is the Opera Ghost's private box, box five. He does not like it when someone else is sitting there."

"Ghost? Don't be silly, there's no such thing as ghosts."

"Mademoiselle, please, I implore that you find someplace else."

"Oh, I'm not afraid of ghosts, if they were real of course. All they do is look scary and say 'boo!' And I really want to see this opera, so can you please let me in, just this once?" The usher gave a sigh.

"Very well, mademoiselle. But I am not responsible for what might happen to you." He unlocked the door to the box and Anna had herself a seat.

After the overture ended and the first aria began, Anna heard a strange voice.

"Excuse me," it said, "this is my seat." Anna looked around for a face to match the voice, but there was no one there. She simply gave a shrug and figured that she was just imagining things. "I would appreciate it if you LEAVE!" the voice shouted. Anna gave a tiny squeak and nearly jumped out of her seat.

"H-hello?" she whispered nervously. "W-who's there?"

"Who do you think?" the voice replied. "You deliberately ignored the usher's warnings and sat your pretty self in _my _box. She suddenly felt something that felt like rope coil around her neck. "I have no excuses as to why I shouldn't kill you right now." Then the rope seemed to disappear. "But I'm feeling merciful tonight. Now get out." Anna quickly sat up and scurried herself out of the opera house. _I am never going there again _she thought.

OoOoOo

When Anna had recognized Erik's voice when she met him, she looked as though she had seen a ghost, which, in a way she had. But to his surprise, she was immediately friendly to him once she learned that he didn't want to hang her. Even stranger was that he thought that he would never be able to stand her nonstop cheery attitude, but it turned out he had actually found it amusing. And he couldn't help but wonder when the sisters returned to their home if he would see the two of them again.


	2. Ayesha

**This is just a little filler that I've been wanting to do for a while that I wanted to incorporate with the rest of the story, and I figured now would be a good time. **

Erik looked down and saw several little bundles of gray fur scattered across his porch and watched as one blew away in the wind. Now why would an animal take rest here? He had always made sure that his garbage cans were tightly sealed so that even if they were knocked over, nothing would be able to dig through it.

"What's wrong?" Christine asked as she exited Erik's house.

"We seem to have a little guest," Erik replied. "But who?"

"I think the answer might be over there." She pointed towards the bushes as a little gray and black-striped cat hopped out of them. By the looks of it, it seemed to be no older than a year.

"Oh, dear," Erik said shaking his head. "This is the last thing I need."

"Aw, look, it's coming right towards us." The cat casually walked the porch steps and eagerly took in every pet Christine gave it.

"Don't do that! We don't know where it's been!"

"Oh, don't be so uptight, dear." The cat walked away from Christine and rubbed itself against Erik's legs and let out a loud purr.

"Ah! No, don't do that! Go away! Get out of here! Shoo!" Erik said as he tried to push away the cat with his foot.

"Aw, it likes you, Erik."

"It also likes covering my pant legs with fur," Erik added with disdain as he looked at the fur sticking to him. "And no, we are not keeping it. The last thing I need is a something to completely disorganize my compositions and ruin my clothes."

So for several days, Christine left a dish of water outside for the cat, which she soon discovered was female. And every day it would come to visit their little house and even sleep on the porch, which Erik reluctantly allowed.

One day, however, something different happened. Early one morning, Erik opened his door and looked left and right before stepping outside with a dish of tuna in his hands.

"Are you awake, cat?" The cat unrolled herself, stretched, and walked over to him and she began to eat the tuna. "Good girl. Now look, how about we just keep this between you and me, okay?" He then began to pet the cat, who purred enthusiastically and he had found the cat's fur quite soft to the touch. "Mm… you know, I think I was wrong about you; you really are quite a good cat."

"I'm so glad you finally came around," Christine said.

"Ah! Christine!" Erik cried shooting up to his feet. "I, uh, didn't see you there. You see what I was doing, was… you see I… Ayesha just was here and-"

"Ayesha?"

"Yes… that was what I thought would be a good name for the cat."

"It's a wonderful name, I think. But do you really think it's right to leave someone with a name out alone all night?"

"I'll go to the store right now and get some cat supplies," Erik said with a defeated sigh.

Erik had gone to the general store and within half an hour he was home with what he might have called "the crazy cat person's essentials". _The Phantom of the Opera; sensitive cat owner _he thought. _Somehow I never would have predicted that this would be even remotely close to how my life would have turned out. _

Still, he saw how happy the little cat made Christine and who was he to take that away? Just watching her laugh as she played with Ayesha made him smile. And to be truthful, he enjoyed the cat's company as much as she did.

**Read and review, please, they always make me happy.**


End file.
